The biggest debuts were in the opening ballet, Balanchine’s “Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée.’” Principal Indiana Woodward and soloist David Gabriel stepped into the central roles created for Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson in 1972. Woodward was sensational. She was sprightly and conspiratorial in her solo, as if she had the happiest secret to share with the audience. It is criminal that she is not dancing Swanilda in “Coppélia” this season. Her surety helped to carry along the young Gabriel, who made a promising though less polished debut. He nailed the tortured poet vibes; he just needs a little more power in his partnering and in his pacing. “Baiser” is famous for its unusually long male solo that directly follows a two-part pas de deux. Gabriel had everything going for him but experience. In time, this could be a signature role.

“Baiser” returns in the spring, so he will get more practice forthwith. I’m glad this strange ballet is getting lots of airtime. Like “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2” from the season’s opening bill, “Baiser” contains an unusual mix of dramatic and technical challenges and a whiff of dance history (it is abstracted from a Hans Christian Andersen tale that Balanchine staged in full in 1937).  Balanchine also throws in very modern, flat-footed steps while impishly nodding to the squareness of peasant dances and Bournonville in “Baiser.” The two rectangles of women who face off in the finale for a long series of simple piqués passés—one faction accenting the downbeat, the other the upbeat—always makes me laugh (even when I danced it!). The flouncy tutus bouncing along to Stravinsky’s flatulent horn arrangement is silly and “satisfying,” as the kids say these days—the choreographic equivalent of a bubble fidget.